The NFLPA has released its reaction to Roger Goodell’s decision to uphold Tom Brady’s four-game suspension. The association plans to appeal, and Brady has reportedly given the go-ahead to appeal in federal court.
Here’s the NFLPA’s full statement:
The Commissioner’s ruling today did nothing to address the legal deficiencies of due process. The NFL remains stuck with the following facts:
The NFL had no policy that applied to players;
The NFL provided no notice of any such policy or potential discipline to players;
The NFL resorted to a nebulous standard of “general awareness” to predicate a legally unjustified punishment;
The NFL had no procedures in place until two days ago to test air pressure in footballs; and
The NFL violated the plain meaning of the collective bargaining agreement.
The fact that the NFL would resort to basing a suspension on a smoke screen of irrelevant text messages instead of admitting that they have all of the phone records they asked for is a new low, even for them, but it does nothing to correct their errors.
The NFLPA will appeal this outrageous decision on behalf of Tom Brady.
Update (6:01 p.m.): The Patriots also released a statement, citing the “laws of science.”
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Photo: AP
Contact the author at samer@deadspin.com.
